My "mission" for my company is to provide good IT services for as low a cost as possible. Right now, I can't really do that because M$ doesn't want to play by the rules. When creating a web site, I actually have to create 2 web sites. One for all those browsers that follow the true standards, and one for M$ IE. That costs my company alot of money. The goal is to reduce this to 1, by eventually removing the need to code specifically for IE. Now, M$ has a choice as to how this is going to happen. It either supports the public standards that make up the Internet or not. Right now, its choosing the latter approach. Since its doing this, I'm forced to take other measures to help reduce the need to code for multiple browsers. This includes educating users that IE is an inferior browser. By taking a few minutes of my time, and placing a "Best viewed with Firefox" link on my web site, I'm doing exactly that.
And with capitalism, if someone builds a better mousetrap, he can win some of the rewards. Since M$ has won the browser wars, it hasn't given a damn about IE. This is what happens with monopolies. Now, open source has given us a better mousetrap with Firefox. M$ having 90% of the market is meaningless. People will use whatever is better. You're seeing this quite dramatically. Within several months, M$ has lost 10% of the market! In what industy is this not news? Any CEO who had lost 10% market share, would have been fired immediately. With M$ continuing to refuse to support public standards, this trend is just going to continue. Any vendor who doesn't honor its customers wishes, will soon not have any customers. Customers are slowly waking up to the fact that only publicly defined standards and not vendor specific are the only way to go.
True. But the experience for IE users can be worse. On the page you can say, "Best viewed with Firefox" and then have a link to www.mozilla.org. M$ has been doing this crap for years. Maybe its time for M$ to get a taste of its own medicine.
Actually there is an extension that will preload your FF dlls upon boot-up. When you compare apples to apples FF is much faster than IE. Its typical of Microspeak to always lie, steal and extort. Just ask the Danish.
Not true. I've spent a significant amount of time on this. Basically, with IE, you get 's and CSS, while with FF you don't. You basically get nested
's and in many cases these are not equivalent. If M$ really wanted to show that it was above all this, it could have released an updated machine.config when it released the.NET 1.1 Framework Service Pack.
In my case, my client initially insisted on.NET. I basically gave him a choice, either pay the additional costs for.NET or agree to allow me to use PHP. He chose PHP.
I guess you haven't tried to develop applications in.Net that will work correctly on both IE and non-IE browsers. M$ has done everything possible to corrupt and distort the Internet so that only their crap-o-lla works properly. In a default ASP.Net installation, any browser that is not IE is brought down to Netscape V4.0 standards. Basically, if you decide to use any of the ASP controls, your web site will display properly only in IE. Anything else gets crappy HTML and you have spent enormous amount of time to make sure it works properly. To change this, you have to mess with the machine.config file, and redefine the how.NET and ASP.NET respond to non-IE browsers. And even then you have to be very carefull. This requires abit more intelligence than what your average MSCE has. Basically, if you want a site that works properly across all browsers, ASP.NET is not it.
Use something like Perl or PHP instead. This even gives you portability to other platforms later on.
I've actually run into this too. They screw around with the TCP/IP layer in order to provide their services. Basically, you have to reinstall TCP/IP on the Windows box. There is a knowledgebase article in M$ support area that explains how to do this. I believe its under the Windows 2000 area, but will also work for XP.
Actually there is a virus that attacks M$ JVM through a security hole. Take a look at Symantec's note regarding this. This is the only issue I've ever had with Java.
It figures that it would be M$ that would once again introduce security problems into software that has proven to be quite secure.
The American dream is dead and buried. Has been for several years. This country is no longer a country of inventors, of self reliant people, of people that for the most part are good at heart.
Now its the megacorps that own this country. The M$'s, the Walmart's, the RIAA and a host of other global companies and orgainizations control the laws of this country. Little by little our rights are being stripped away, and we are letting them! How about the almost dead idea of fair use? How about the constant stripping of privacy in any and all parts of our life? How about the curtailing of rights for TV programming (the broadcast flag debate)? How about the rights of broadcasting companies to grow even larger(recent FCC ruling allowing media companies to own more in a particular market).
The reality is the the US is no longer leading the world. It is slowly becoming a third world county because we are allowing the greedy corporations to dictate what we can and cannot do. It is becoming a county where the middle class is slowly dieing. It used to be if you worked hard enough you could change your social status. If you were poor, you could become middle class. If you were middle class you could move up to upper class. Now the greedy wealthy corporations are doing everything in their power to prevent this. This county is becoming a country of only two classes - the wealthy and the poor. The middle class is actually losing ground and many are moving into the upper-poor class. Just look at how many greedy companies have moved their jobs to India and China. They state that they have to do this for competitive reasions. Bullshit. Its because the CEOs who are already making millions, want to make millions more. That's it. Greed. Plain and simple. They are sacrificing the stability of this country for their own personal greed. These animals are worse than traitors.
I actually hope that they do this!! It will be Christmas for Linux. Already WinBlows is many times more expensive than Linux. This will just make it that much more expensive. When critical Linux security issues are patched free within 1 day, and WinBlows security issues cost money and take over a year (just look at the unpatched 50 (I)nferior (E)xplorer holes), companies will migrate over to Linux in droves.
Sure if this was sending junk all the time. But it doesn't need to. That's why I'm using a screen saver. If the saver has kicked in, then supposedly you are not using the machine (and thus the Internet connection). And I think that only a small amount of junk records need to come from each machine. This becomes a cumulative effect, because it throws into doubt the reliability of their database. If the scumware vendor doesn't detect this, then he will pass on higher rates to the one who is advertising, with no real additional value. Don't forget, the scumware vendor will have to also spend more on his data processing (more bandwidth, more cpu etc.) needs. If you do this on a grand scale, the rising tide raises all boats. Right now the costs and the penalties for advertising using the results of scumware is pretty low.
We could also add prioritization in the lists to help target the worst offendors. For example, since coolsearch is an especially difficult scumware to remove, maybe 10 hits to 1 go to that site. This way we start targeting the worst of the worst and eventually cause them to die. As each one dies, we turn to the next onerous one. Choosing the next victim could be a matter of vote from the OSS croud.
I don't think that we want to do an outright DDOS of any company. I think that the costs for behaving bad need to be raised to the point where it is painful.
I've been looking into ways to remove the profit incentive from the spyware guys. These morally challenged cruds monitor your web browsing habits and then sell that info. What if that info was full of bad entries? Like increasing the junk to valid signal ratio?
What I envision is a screen saver that we load on all the machines we can get our hands on. This screen saver then contacts these spyware sites and uploads random info. The aggressiveness could be controlled by the user, allowing it not to flood any Internet connection. The screen saver could have spyware lists, just like anti-virus software that could be updated. Imagine having millions of pcs uploading junk to coolwebsearch. How long would you say these guys would stay in business? Would those that are buying this info continue to do so even if it full of garbage?
Obviously this would be OSS, but we could license it in such a way as to allow folks like Dell to preload this and set it as default.
So folks, what do you think? Is this the way to kill these guys or is the recent criminalization enough to stem the tide?
You can go down to your local SS office and ask for a new SSN. This is painful, time consuming and difficult because you will need to notify all of the businesses that you used the old SSN ligitamiteley (such as credit cards, mortgages, loans etc.) They may reject the change, but then if you get into a bigger pickle with identity theft, you can hire a lawyer and sue SS.
I second that. American TV is nothing but crap. Notice the recent trend of feeding us reality shows as entertainment. And how about that non-biased, neutral news reporting of Dan Rather and CBS ?!! Let's face it, American TV is now owned by a bunch of megacompanies who pursue their own agenda which is not consistent with the ideas of democracy and intelligent viewers. Its called the "boob tube" for a reason. Instead, go out and enjoy life. Do whatever interests you. If you don't have a hobby, get one. Go to the movies or theater. Don't get your news from TV or news papers - use the Internet instead. Get rid of your TV if you can. If you must watch TV, set yourself a low timelimit, something like no more than 2 or 3 hours a week. This forces you to choose only a couple of the most important shows to you, and to get involved in activities other than watching the boob tube. Then over a period of time, reduce that limit to a gradual amout of zero. Eventually, you will not miss it. You'll be a better person for it.
The healthcare industry is extremely slow on the up take. I talked to some high up execs at Empire Blue Cross about getting their member only sites to work with Firefox. The told me in no uncertain terms that that won't happen because of "security concerns"! This didn't even pass the straight face test. It's even wierder because only a few of the pages would need to modified. It seems that the health care sector is going to need a much bigger kick in the ass to get moving to FF.
I so agree. While Clinton was turning the Whitehouse into a whorehouse, he totally ignored the threats that America was beginning to face. If he had acted, the threat would have been eliminated while it was manageable. Now, the only way to stop this trend is to actually go and fight these bastards where they live. These guys are nothing but power hungry madmen. There is no reasoning with them. There is no capitulation with them. Just as it was meaningless to try to appease Hilter, its just as meaningless now to appease these madmen. Its time to go after them.
I think that being an ironworker takes some mean guts to get up on those "sticks" at those dizzy heights. But lets face it, the last "new" innovation was 20 years ago when ironworkers stopped using rivets and switched to bolts. No new ideas, no new ways of raising steel. Yet the Japanese have introduced idea after idea. The new way of raising "sticks" is via an automated factory crane which lifts itself after installation of each floor. This is totally automated, reducing the amount of labor, cost and time. For every 3 months of construction steel going up in the US, it takes the Japanese 1. This technique has been used extensively in Japan for the past 5! years, yet it has yet to appear here in the US. And if you think that this technique is unproven, guess again. It was used to build Taipai 101 in Taiwan, the current largest building in the world.
Now lets contrast that to the US. We had a great opportunity to show our abilities and make a statement with the construction of the new Freedom Tower to replace the World Trade Centers. We argued, we fought, we compromised. The final design is as inspired as milk toast. It doesn't claim the tallest building title. Even the outline of the building is uninspired. It doesn't get much better than Manhattan to build the tallest building in the world. Underneath, you have solid bedrock. You can't ask for better conditions. Yet we settled for this crap because we've lost our edge. We've settled for mediocrity, because that's what unions do. Where was the outcry from the ironworkers saying to the terroists f- you? We're going to build the tallest building in the world. Where was the spirit that built the Empire State building in 6 months? Where the ironworkers were raising 1 floor a day? We've lost our edge, and unions are part of the reason why.
Contractors have much leeway in how they build what the engineers have specified. Each approach has different material and labor savings. The construction unions have pretty much laid down the law and basically killed any labor savings. I'll give you one example. In the painting industry, you have different methods of applying paint. You can brush it on, roll it on, or you can spray it on. With a brush it will take you 4 hours to complete a wall. With a roller it will take you 2 hours and spraying will take you 1/2 hr. If you are paying a painter $50/Hr to paint the wall which method would you prefer to use? You would want him to use spraying. It gives you the best quality in the shortest amount of time. Yet, union rules state that spraying cannot not be used. Why? because there is only so much work available and if it can be done quicker you don't need as many painters. Union memership drops. Union doesn't make as much money, union is not as powerful, and union leadership doesn't have slush funds that they use to live in luxury. All the things that make unions strong are mutually exclusive with all the things that reduce cost, improve quality and speed development time. The unions act in their own best interests which are not in line with these 21st century concepts.
Now you are a building developer. You have hired architects, engineers etc. to help you design a building. You have a set budget. So now instead of trying new concepts or designs, you decide to take the standard approach. Why? because so much of your budget is spent on these labor inefficiencies that there is no money to try anything risky. Look at any building built in the US within the last 15 years. They are standard tube steel and glass construction. Yet overseas you see some really impressive structures.
Now this set of cost economies are occuring in all unionized industries. They become fat, inefficient, and impose ridiculous restrictions in order to keep their membership large. Name me just one, one US industry that is unionized that is dominating the world market. There aren't any.
Japan's telecom industry is GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED, and ten years ago it was ANCIENT.
I agree, 10 years ago it was ancient. But currently, 2 Japanies companies have revolutioned that country. In Japan, the telecommunications companies are bringing fiber to the last mile. Yet here, it literally takes 4 weeks to provision a copper landline from Verizon. And fiber to the last mile is just a dream. Japan has one of the highest levels of broadband penetration. Yet, here in the US Verizon is touting its expensive 256K DSL as "high speed". In Japan, they have all the latest wireless features (and get them first), yet here in the US we still can't seem to get affordable wireless data capabilities. The situation with Worldcom is with just one company. In the US, we're supposed to have competition. What about AT&T, RCN, SBC and a half dozen other companies out there? No. There is a common factor. Its call the CWA (Communications Workers of America). This union is totally responsible for stalling any innovation in the US telecommunications sector.
By children and prison labor in the places that inspired the term "sweatshop" and haven't changed since. And actually, our textile industry does reasonably well, it's just contracted down to a more reasonable share (we were once the king of textiles -- no one can stay on top of an industry like that forever).
If it does so well, when was the last time you saw the "Made in America" label on a clothing? Its been many years for me. If we're doing so well, why do we have so many closed factories? The textile union was unwilling to compromise. They were unwilling to introduce automation, streamlined processes, or any method to reduce costs. They were totally inflexible. Well, the owners of those factories could only do one thing. Move those jobs out of the country.
Are you aware that a large contingent of all airline pilots qualify for food stamps?
I don't know where you are getting your numbers for this. A pilot who has an average of 500 flight hours will make $150K US. The average salary in the US is around $40K. These labor costs are way too exorbitant. Granted, fuel costs have gone up, but they've gone up for everyone. These are fixed costs and nothing can be done about that. Yet there are airline companies out there that are not only making a profit, they are thriving. How are they doing that? I'll tell you how. They got the labor costs under control. They pretty much told the unions to go f- themselves. They instituted systems, processes and methods that streamlined their operations in all areas, from maintenance to operations.
Detroit is recording record profits. Ford is gobbling up Volvo and Rolls Royce
Ford may be making record profits. But over 85% of the parts for a Ford car are actually made overseas. In places like Mexico, Canada, China and India. Only the final assembly is done in the US. Why? Because once again the unions have fostered an environment that is restrictive and uncompetive.
I've seen laziness in teachers unions firsthand, but I can also tell you that they're not nearly as powerful as the far right wing would have you believe.
It's not laziness. Its a system that is totally broken. In NY US, it literally takes 5 years to fire a teacher that has been accused of sexually abusing their students. All the while getting paid not to teach. What does it say about a system that even when a teacher commits a crime, they can't be fired? Firing and hiring decisions have been taken away from the principles (the teachers bosses). This year, the NY public school budget was $12 Billion US. The mayor is proposing to increase that to $18 Billion US for next year's budget. Yet, out of all that money, only a measley $10,000 per child gets to the classroom. The bulk of the money goes to the union for non-work administrative jobs. The amount of administrative overhead is so much that if the school department was an actual business, it would be in bankrupt
Unionization is the first class ticket to non-competitiveness. Literally all unionized industries in the US have become obsolete. Companies that are forced to accept unions are on the verge of bankruptcy. Lets look at some of the industries shall we...
Telecommunications - Unions have pretty much locked us into a system that is totally obsolete. While Japan and other countries are implementing state-of-the-art telecommunications systems, our system is relegated to 1940's technology.
Textiles - unions have pretty much killed this industry in the US. Times were when the US was the king in making reasonably priced clothes. Now, all clothing is made outside the US.
Automotive - The UAW has pretty much killed the industry that America invented.
Airline - The pilots union has caused many of a carrier to declare bankruptcy. Even now, 3 major US carries are about to go down this path.
Teachers - The teachers union has been the sole reason why the K-12 schools in the US are so bad. Where the teachers union doesn't have any influence (universities), US schools are a cut above the rest.
Construction - The cost to build per square foot is double than the rest of the world due to corrupt unions. In addition, we are no longer building anything innovative, or using new materials or technique that may improve construction.
There are many more such examples. Let's face it, unions are bad, bad, bad for the US, it employees, and its economy. Unions were a solution for the 30's, 40's and 50's. But they are not the solution for the 21st century.
set up an OSS organization, devoted to cull the best from the OSS and patent it. Then allow only OSS to use these patents free of charge. Any commercial entity wanting to use these patents can license them for a fee. These fees can then be plowed back into OSS development or to fund other public patents. I know that if OSS develops something, then its prior art. Unfortunately, the patent office and the courts are totally ignoring this prior art.
Also, any new standards that are developed for the Internet, could stipulate the use of these public patents. Use of these patents would only be allowed only if they are followed to the letter. Any deviation or modification would be grounds for revocation of the right to use. This would give teeth to enforcement of standards. We're in this mess with IE right now. MS took public standards, and then extended them in order to lock everyone into WinBloze. There is not much the public can do to punish M$ for this crime against the public good. If this patent system was in place, then this organization could sue and revoke M$'s ability to have products that break all of the standards. M$ talks about how everyone should conform to its standards. How about for once, M$ being forced to comply with the world's standards?
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My "mission" for my company is to provide good IT services for as low a cost as possible. Right now, I can't really do that because M$ doesn't want to play by the rules. When creating a web site, I actually have to create 2 web sites. One for all those browsers that follow the true standards, and one for M$ IE. That costs my company alot of money. The goal is to reduce this to 1, by eventually removing the need to code specifically for IE. Now, M$ has a choice as to how this is going to happen. It either supports the public standards that make up the Internet or not. Right now, its choosing the latter approach. Since its doing this, I'm forced to take other measures to help reduce the need to code for multiple browsers. This includes educating users that IE is an inferior browser. By taking a few minutes of my time, and placing a "Best viewed with Firefox" link on my web site, I'm doing exactly that.
And with capitalism, if someone builds a better mousetrap, he can win some of the rewards. Since M$ has won the browser wars, it hasn't given a damn about IE. This is what happens with monopolies. Now, open source has given us a better mousetrap with Firefox. M$ having 90% of the market is meaningless. People will use whatever is better. You're seeing this quite dramatically. Within several months, M$ has lost 10% of the market! In what industy is this not news? Any CEO who had lost 10% market share, would have been fired immediately. With M$ continuing to refuse to support public standards, this trend is just going to continue. Any vendor who doesn't honor its customers wishes, will soon not have any customers. Customers are slowly waking up to the fact that only publicly defined standards and not vendor specific are the only way to go.
True. But the experience for IE users can be worse. On the page you can say, "Best viewed with Firefox" and then have a link to www.mozilla.org. M$ has been doing this crap for years. Maybe its time for M$ to get a taste of its own medicine.
Actually there is an extension that will preload your FF dlls upon boot-up. When you compare apples to apples FF is much faster than IE. Its typical of Microspeak to always lie, steal and extort. Just ask the Danish.
How about the Dell printers? Has anyone tried these? Do these printers have any of the phone home issues?
Not true. I've spent a significant amount of time on this. Basically, with IE, you get 's and CSS, while with FF you don't. You basically get nested 's and in many cases these are not equivalent. If M$ really wanted to show that it was above all this, it could have released an updated machine.config when it released the .NET 1.1 Framework Service Pack.
.NET. I basically gave him a choice, either pay the additional costs for .NET or agree to allow me to use PHP. He chose PHP.
In my case, my client initially insisted on
I guess you haven't tried to develop applications in .Net that will work correctly on both IE and non-IE browsers. M$ has done everything possible to corrupt and distort the Internet so that only their crap-o-lla works properly. In a default ASP.Net installation, any browser that is not IE is brought down to Netscape V4.0 standards. Basically, if you decide to use any of the ASP controls, your web site will display properly only in IE. Anything else gets crappy HTML and you have spent enormous amount of time to make sure it works properly. To change this, you have to mess with the machine.config file, and redefine the how .NET and ASP.NET respond to non-IE browsers. And even then you have to be very carefull. This requires abit more intelligence than what your average MSCE has. Basically, if you want a site that works properly across all browsers, ASP.NET is not it.
Use something like Perl or PHP instead. This even gives you portability to other platforms later on.
I've actually run into this too. They screw around with the TCP/IP layer in order to provide their services. Basically, you have to reinstall TCP/IP on the Windows box. There is a knowledgebase article in M$ support area that explains how to do this. I believe its under the Windows 2000 area, but will also work for XP.
Actually there is a virus that attacks M$ JVM through a security hole. Take a look at Symantec's note regarding this. This is the only issue I've ever had with Java.
It figures that it would be M$ that would once again introduce security problems into software that has proven to be quite secure.
Haven't you heard!
The American dream is dead and buried. Has been for several years. This country is no longer a country of inventors, of self reliant people, of people that for the most part are good at heart.
Now its the megacorps that own this country. The M$'s, the Walmart's, the RIAA and a host of other global companies and orgainizations control the laws of this country. Little by little our rights are being stripped away, and we are letting them! How about the almost dead idea of fair use? How about the constant stripping of privacy in any and all parts of our life? How about the curtailing of rights for TV programming (the broadcast flag debate)? How about the rights of broadcasting companies to grow even larger(recent FCC ruling allowing media companies to own more in a particular market).
The reality is the the US is no longer leading the world. It is slowly becoming a third world county because we are allowing the greedy corporations to dictate what we can and cannot do. It is becoming a county where the middle class is slowly dieing. It used to be if you worked hard enough you could change your social status. If you were poor, you could become middle class. If you were middle class you could move up to upper class. Now the greedy wealthy corporations are doing everything in their power to prevent this. This county is becoming a country of only two classes - the wealthy and the poor. The middle class is actually losing ground and many are moving into the upper-poor class. Just look at how many greedy companies have moved their jobs to India and China. They state that they have to do this for competitive reasions. Bullshit. Its because the CEOs who are already making millions, want to make millions more. That's it. Greed. Plain and simple. They are sacrificing the stability of this country for their own personal greed. These animals are worse than traitors.
Because it takes M$ 6 months or more to patch the holes (see those 50 known bugs in IE) and with OSS it usually takes no more than 1 day!
Now to cut through all that marketing BS --
Our current stuff is crap. Just wait until the next version!!
I actually hope that they do this!! It will be Christmas for Linux. Already WinBlows is many times more expensive than Linux. This will just make it that much more expensive. When critical Linux security issues are patched free within 1 day, and WinBlows security issues cost money and take over a year (just look at the unpatched 50 (I)nferior (E)xplorer holes), companies will migrate over to Linux in droves.
Must be running Microcrap software!
Sure if this was sending junk all the time. But it doesn't need to. That's why I'm using a screen saver. If the saver has kicked in, then supposedly you are not using the machine (and thus the Internet connection). And I think that only a small amount of junk records need to come from each machine. This becomes a cumulative effect, because it throws into doubt the reliability of their database. If the scumware vendor doesn't detect this, then he will pass on higher rates to the one who is advertising, with no real additional value. Don't forget, the scumware vendor will have to also spend more on his data processing (more bandwidth, more cpu etc.) needs. If you do this on a grand scale, the rising tide raises all boats. Right now the costs and the penalties for advertising using the results of scumware is pretty low.
We could also add prioritization in the lists to help target the worst offendors. For example, since coolsearch is an especially difficult scumware to remove, maybe 10 hits to 1 go to that site. This way we start targeting the worst of the worst and eventually cause them to die. As each one dies, we turn to the next onerous one. Choosing the next victim could be a matter of vote from the OSS croud.
I don't think that we want to do an outright DDOS of any company. I think that the costs for behaving bad need to be raised to the point where it is painful.
I've been looking into ways to remove the profit incentive from the spyware guys. These morally challenged cruds monitor your web browsing habits and then sell that info. What if that info was full of bad entries? Like increasing the junk to valid signal ratio?
What I envision is a screen saver that we load on all the machines we can get our hands on. This screen saver then contacts these spyware sites and uploads random info. The aggressiveness could be controlled by the user, allowing it not to flood any Internet connection. The screen saver could have spyware lists, just like anti-virus software that could be updated. Imagine having millions of pcs uploading junk to coolwebsearch. How long would you say these guys would stay in business? Would those that are buying this info continue to do so even if it full of garbage?
Obviously this would be OSS, but we could license it in such a way as to allow folks like Dell to preload this and set it as default.
So folks, what do you think? Is this the way to kill these guys or is the recent criminalization enough to stem the tide?
You can go down to your local SS office and ask for a new SSN. This is painful, time consuming and difficult because you will need to notify all of the businesses that you used the old SSN ligitamiteley (such as credit cards, mortgages, loans etc.) They may reject the change, but then if you get into a bigger pickle with identity theft, you can hire a lawyer and sue SS.
I second that. American TV is nothing but crap. Notice the recent trend of feeding us reality shows as entertainment. And how about that non-biased, neutral news reporting of Dan Rather and CBS ?!! Let's face it, American TV is now owned by a bunch of megacompanies who pursue their own agenda which is not consistent with the ideas of democracy and intelligent viewers. Its called the "boob tube" for a reason. Instead, go out and enjoy life. Do whatever interests you. If you don't have a hobby, get one. Go to the movies or theater. Don't get your news from TV or news papers - use the Internet instead. Get rid of your TV if you can. If you must watch TV, set yourself a low timelimit, something like no more than 2 or 3 hours a week. This forces you to choose only a couple of the most important shows to you, and to get involved in activities other than watching the boob tube. Then over a period of time, reduce that limit to a gradual amout of zero. Eventually, you will not miss it. You'll be a better person for it.
The healthcare industry is extremely slow on the up take. I talked to some high up execs at Empire Blue Cross about getting their member only sites to work with Firefox. The told me in no uncertain terms that that won't happen because of "security concerns"! This didn't even pass the straight face test. It's even wierder because only a few of the pages would need to modified. It seems that the health care sector is going to need a much bigger kick in the ass to get moving to FF.
I so agree. While Clinton was turning the Whitehouse into a whorehouse, he totally ignored the threats that America was beginning to face. If he had acted, the threat would have been eliminated while it was manageable. Now, the only way to stop this trend is to actually go and fight these bastards where they live. These guys are nothing but power hungry madmen. There is no reasoning with them. There is no capitulation with them. Just as it was meaningless to try to appease Hilter, its just as meaningless now to appease these madmen. Its time to go after them.
I think that being an ironworker takes some mean guts to get up on those "sticks" at those dizzy heights. But lets face it, the last "new" innovation was 20 years ago when ironworkers stopped using rivets and switched to bolts. No new ideas, no new ways of raising steel. Yet the Japanese have introduced idea after idea. The new way of raising "sticks" is via an automated factory crane which lifts itself after installation of each floor. This is totally automated, reducing the amount of labor, cost and time. For every 3 months of construction steel going up in the US, it takes the Japanese 1. This technique has been used extensively in Japan for the past 5! years, yet it has yet to appear here in the US. And if you think that this technique is unproven, guess again. It was used to build Taipai 101 in Taiwan, the current largest building in the world.
Now lets contrast that to the US. We had a great opportunity to show our abilities and make a statement with the construction of the new Freedom Tower to replace the World Trade Centers. We argued, we fought, we compromised. The final design is as inspired as milk toast. It doesn't claim the tallest building title. Even the outline of the building is uninspired. It doesn't get much better than Manhattan to build the tallest building in the world. Underneath, you have solid bedrock. You can't ask for better conditions. Yet we settled for this crap because we've lost our edge. We've settled for mediocrity, because that's what unions do. Where was the outcry from the ironworkers saying to the terroists f- you? We're going to build the tallest building in the world. Where was the spirit that built the Empire State building in 6 months? Where the ironworkers were raising 1 floor a day? We've lost our edge, and unions are part of the reason why.
Contractors have much leeway in how they build what the engineers have specified. Each approach has different material and labor savings. The construction unions have pretty much laid down the law and basically killed any labor savings. I'll give you one example. In the painting industry, you have different methods of applying paint. You can brush it on, roll it on, or you can spray it on. With a brush it will take you 4 hours to complete a wall. With a roller it will take you 2 hours and spraying will take you 1/2 hr. If you are paying a painter $50/Hr to paint the wall which method would you prefer to use? You would want him to use spraying. It gives you the best quality in the shortest amount of time. Yet, union rules state that spraying cannot not be used. Why? because there is only so much work available and if it can be done quicker you don't need as many painters. Union memership drops. Union doesn't make as much money, union is not as powerful, and union leadership doesn't have slush funds that they use to live in luxury. All the things that make unions strong are mutually exclusive with all the things that reduce cost, improve quality and speed development time. The unions act in their own best interests which are not in line with these 21st century concepts.
Now you are a building developer. You have hired architects, engineers etc. to help you design a building. You have a set budget. So now instead of trying new concepts or designs, you decide to take the standard approach. Why? because so much of your budget is spent on these labor inefficiencies that there is no money to try anything risky. Look at any building built in the US within the last 15 years. They are standard tube steel and glass construction. Yet overseas you see some really impressive structures.
Now this set of cost economies are occuring in all unionized industries. They become fat, inefficient, and impose ridiculous restrictions in order to keep their membership large. Name me just one, one US industry that is unionized that is dominating the world market. There aren't any.
Japan's telecom industry is GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED, and ten years ago it was ANCIENT.
I agree, 10 years ago it was ancient. But currently, 2 Japanies companies have revolutioned that country. In Japan, the telecommunications companies are bringing fiber to the last mile. Yet here, it literally takes 4 weeks to provision a copper landline from Verizon. And fiber to the last mile is just a dream. Japan has one of the highest levels of broadband penetration. Yet, here in the US Verizon is touting its expensive 256K DSL as "high speed". In Japan, they have all the latest wireless features (and get them first), yet here in the US we still can't seem to get affordable wireless data capabilities. The situation with Worldcom is with just one company. In the US, we're supposed to have competition. What about AT&T, RCN, SBC and a half dozen other companies out there? No. There is a common factor. Its call the CWA (Communications Workers of America). This union is totally responsible for stalling any innovation in the US telecommunications sector.
By children and prison labor in the places that inspired the term "sweatshop" and haven't changed since. And actually, our textile industry does reasonably well, it's just contracted down to a more reasonable share (we were once the king of textiles -- no one can stay on top of an industry like that forever).
If it does so well, when was the last time you saw the "Made in America" label on a clothing? Its been many years for me. If we're doing so well, why do we have so many closed factories? The textile union was unwilling to compromise. They were unwilling to introduce automation, streamlined processes, or any method to reduce costs. They were totally inflexible. Well, the owners of those factories could only do one thing. Move those jobs out of the country.
Are you aware that a large contingent of all airline pilots qualify for food stamps?
I don't know where you are getting your numbers for this. A pilot who has an average of 500 flight hours will make $150K US. The average salary in the US is around $40K. These labor costs are way too exorbitant. Granted, fuel costs have gone up, but they've gone up for everyone. These are fixed costs and nothing can be done about that. Yet there are airline companies out there that are not only making a profit, they are thriving. How are they doing that? I'll tell you how. They got the labor costs under control. They pretty much told the unions to go f- themselves. They instituted systems, processes and methods that streamlined their operations in all areas, from maintenance to operations.
Detroit is recording record profits. Ford is gobbling up Volvo and Rolls Royce
Ford may be making record profits. But over 85% of the parts for a Ford car are actually made overseas. In places like Mexico, Canada, China and India. Only the final assembly is done in the US. Why? Because once again the unions have fostered an environment that is restrictive and uncompetive.
I've seen laziness in teachers unions firsthand, but I can also tell you that they're not nearly as powerful as the far right wing would have you believe.
It's not laziness. Its a system that is totally broken. In NY US, it literally takes 5 years to fire a teacher that has been accused of sexually abusing their students. All the while getting paid not to teach. What does it say about a system that even when a teacher commits a crime, they can't be fired? Firing and hiring decisions have been taken away from the principles (the teachers bosses). This year, the NY public school budget was $12 Billion US. The mayor is proposing to increase that to $18 Billion US for next year's budget. Yet, out of all that money, only a measley $10,000 per child gets to the classroom. The bulk of the money goes to the union for non-work administrative jobs. The amount of administrative overhead is so much that if the school department was an actual business, it would be in bankrupt
Unionization is the first class ticket to non-competitiveness. Literally all unionized industries in the US have become obsolete. Companies that are forced to accept unions are on the verge of bankruptcy. Lets look at some of the industries shall we...
Telecommunications - Unions have pretty much locked us into a system that is totally obsolete. While Japan and other countries are implementing state-of-the-art telecommunications systems, our system is relegated to 1940's technology.
Textiles - unions have pretty much killed this industry in the US. Times were when the US was the king in making reasonably priced clothes. Now, all clothing is made outside the US.
Automotive - The UAW has pretty much killed the industry that America invented.
Airline - The pilots union has caused many of a carrier to declare bankruptcy. Even now, 3 major US carries are about to go down this path.
Teachers - The teachers union has been the sole reason why the K-12 schools in the US are so bad. Where the teachers union doesn't have any influence (universities), US schools are a cut above the rest.
Construction - The cost to build per square foot is double than the rest of the world due to corrupt unions. In addition, we are no longer building anything innovative, or using new materials or technique that may improve construction.
There are many more such examples. Let's face it, unions are bad, bad, bad for the US, it employees, and its economy. Unions were a solution for the 30's, 40's and 50's. But they are not the solution for the 21st century.
set up an OSS organization, devoted to cull the best from the OSS and patent it. Then allow only OSS to use these patents free of charge. Any commercial entity wanting to use these patents can license them for a fee. These fees can then be plowed back into OSS development or to fund other public patents. I know that if OSS develops something, then its prior art. Unfortunately, the patent office and the courts are totally ignoring this prior art.
Also, any new standards that are developed for the Internet, could stipulate the use of these public patents. Use of these patents would only be allowed only if they are followed to the letter. Any deviation or modification would be grounds for revocation of the right to use. This would give teeth to enforcement of standards. We're in this mess with IE right now. MS took public standards, and then extended them in order to lock everyone into WinBloze. There is not much the public can do to punish M$ for this crime against the public good. If this patent system was in place, then this organization could sue and revoke M$'s ability to have products that break all of the standards. M$ talks about how everyone should conform to its standards. How about for once, M$ being forced to comply with the world's standards?